Liam’s rehabilitation journey with Exemplar Health Care

Following a road traffic accident that resulted in a traumatic brain injury, Liam moved into our Ribble View care home in Preston. Thanks to our high staffing levels and in-house Therapy Team, Liam continued his rehabilitation journey and made great progress, and has now moved to a specialist rehabilitation centre closer to his family.

Liam has a big family with his fiancé, young sons and stepdaughter, and has always been an active person, enjoying the gym and travelling with work.

He has mild cerebral palsy which resulted in him having a monoplegia of his left leg - he managed this well and lived an exciting and full life.

Liam worked as a Sales Engineer and travelled a lot with work. He loves fast cars and motorbikes, and enjoyed motocross and had his own bike. He also enjoyed going to the gym and building up his muscles.

The start of Liam’s journey at Ribble View

When Liam moved to Ribble View from complex rehabilitation unit, The Walton Centre in Liverpool, he had significant support needs.

He required assistance with double incontinence, was fed via a PEG and could only take very small volumes of food and fluids.

His communication was limited and, although he appeared to understand what was being said to him, he had limited expressive speech and was very repetitive with his thought processions.

As well as the brain injury, Liam also had a number of fractured bones including his right humerus, radius and ulnar, phalanx, thoracic and cervical spine.

He required surgery on his right arm to stabilise the fractures and came to Ribble View requiring a large amount of equipment including a specialist wheelchair, stand aid, leg  splint/ calliper, wrist splint, feed pump, specialist bed with cot sides and communication board.

Cognitive impact of brain injury

Due to the cognitive impact of his brain injury, Liam doesn’t recognise hazards to himself and would display risky behaviours such as eating food despite an ineffective swallow and trying to stand when there was insufficient support or for him.

Liam had also been known to display behaviours of concern due to the inability to have his needs understood.

Liam was supported by a mental capacity assessment and a deprivation of liberty assessment to ensure that he was safe in his environment and provided with the correct level of care to meet his needs.

Therapy Team support at Ribble View

Due to Liam being transferred at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, is was difficult for the home to access community therapy and Liam had to remain on bed rest for a number of weeks before he could be seen by the local rehabilitation team.

A few months later, the home employed a Physiotherapist and Occupational Therapist to work alongside the nursing and care team.

Through an intensive therapy programme, the team worked with Liam to encourage independence of movement, improve joint range of motion, develop memory and processing skills and maintain attention within a task.

Maximising independence

Liam had round the clock encouragement with all aspects of living at Ribble View, to engage and enjoy all of the opportunities presented to him.

This included getting up and dressed in a morning, online speech therapy, exercise groups, cooking and baking sessions, painting, singing; the list is endless and Liam always put in a lot of effort and enthusiasm.

Thanks to the in-house Therapy Team and high staffing levels at Ribble View, Liam’s abilities improved over time.

He started to manoeuvre himself onto the side of his bed, stand with minimal assistance, step to the side with assistance of one person, take off his own socks and t-shirts, self-care with a toothbrush and hair brush, wash his own face, stretch his right arm and sit independently on a chair.

His attention span increased and he was able to process information more effectively. He enjoyed using the virtual reality in the home.

In March 2021, Liam moved to a specialist rehabilitation centre closer to his home. We wish Liam all the best in the next part of his journey!

Complex care with Exemplar Health Care

Exemplar Health Care is a leading provider of specialist nursing care for adults living with a range of complex and high acuity needs.

We care for some of the most complex and acute individuals, who would often be in a hospital setting if not placed with us, enabling them to stay in the community and reducing hospital and secure facility admission.

Find out more about our care and make a referral to one of our specialist nursing homes.